Yet Another Injustice

I lifted this off a friend's blog, I really didnt have anything else to add, so I am putting her post up (with her permission of course).

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly Assault 12-Year-Old Girl

It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.

As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, 'You're a prostitute. You're coming with me.'

Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.' One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.

As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.

All this is according to a lawsuit filed in Galveston federal court by Milburn against the officers. The lawsuit alleges that the officers thought Dymond, an African-American, was a hooker due to the 'tight shorts' she was wearing, despite not fitting the racial description of any of the female suspects. The police went to the wrong house, two blocks away from the area of the reported illegal activity, Milburn's attorney, Anthony Griffin, tells Hair Balls.

After the incident, Dymond was hospitalized and suffered black eyes as well as throat and ear drum injuries.

Three weeks later, according to the lawsuit, police went to Dymond's school, where she was an honor student, and arrested her for assaulting a public servant. Griffin says the allegations stem from when Dymond fought back against the three men who were trying to take her from her home. The case went to trial, but the judge declared it a mistrial on the first day, says Griffin. The new trial is set for February.

'I think we'll be okay,' says Griffin. 'I don't think a jury will find a 12-year-old girl guilty who's just sitting outside her house. Any 12-year-old attacked by three men and told that she's a prostitute is going to scream and yell for Daddy and hit back and do whatever she can. She's scared to death.'

Since the incident more than two years ago, Dymond regularly suffers nightmares in which police officers are raping and beating her and cutting off her fingers, according to the lawsuit.
Griffin says he expects to enter mediation with the officers in early 2009 to resolve the lawsuit.

We've got calls in to the officers' lawyer; we'll let you know if we hear something.

Update: This is from the officers' lawyer, William Helfand:

Both the daughter and the father were arrested for assaulting a peace officer. 'The father basically attacked police officers as they were trying to take the daughter into custody after she ran off.'

Also, 'The city has investigated the matter and found that the conduct of the police officers was appropriate under the circumstances,' Helfand says. 'It's unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that both these folks violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest.'
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Oh God. Oh my motherfucking GOD.

I don't even know where to start with my fury.

Look, I know I report a lot of depressing shit in my blog, and maybe it really harshes your mellow. But seriously, if you're not outraged every day, YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION. We can't change what's wrong if we don't know what's happening.

They're looking for three WHITE ADULT PROSTITUTES and so they arrest and assault a BLACK 12-YEAR OLD?!

A kid in short shorts in fucking hot-ass GALVESTON, TX, is a prostitute because of her clothing?!

If she WERE a sex worker, this is really an appropriate manner to handle the case, by beating and dragging her away?!

If she WERE a sex worker, shouldn't the concern be that a 12-year-old is being raped?! Shouldn't the concern be the johns or the pimps, not the underage prostitute?!

Three men in an unmarked van, in street clothes, come up and grab you, and you're not supposed to fight back?!

(I have taught my daughters that if ANYONE they don't know tries to take them away, even if it is without force, the girls are to FREAK THE FUCK OUT and go feral on them. I'd rather be terribly embarrassed that Cordelia and Lorelei bit and scratched a good Samaritan than to have to identify their precious little bodies at the morgue.)

You're not supposed to run out and protect your daughter as she screams in terror?!

(If you think my mild-mannered, slightly undersized husband wouldn't kill a man with his bare fucking hands if said man tried to harm Cordelia or Lorelei, you obviously have no understanding of the depth of Logan's intense, unwavering, almost-irrational daddy love. Shit, he'd have to fight me to get out there, because I would already be on a motherfucker's back with a piano wire in one hand and a shiv in the other. Y'all know what the story is...I've spilled blood to save my babies, and I have no qualms about doing it again, cops or no.)

And the big, strong cops have to show up at the girl's school 2 weeks later to publicly humiliate her with an arrest, when they obviously already know where she lives...why?!

(There are probably a lot of pissed-off police officers right now, the ones who do their job and uphold the law and are genuinely good citizens, who lament that these kind of corrupt thugs are damaging the reputation of the good cops out there. )

And these fuckstick cops' lawyer can really represent these slimes in any good conscience?!

There's a whole lot of ?! in this musing because my main reaction is one big

?!

What the fuck else can you say to craziness like this?

- So yeah, my friend is pretty fierce when it comes to her opinions, but seriously, who wouldnt be after reading numerous accounts of the above-mentioned story? I already googled and did my research, and it is true :-( Sadly, there is still injustice in our country, even with a newly-elected black president....